


Wait For Me

by rollie_ravioli



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Akechi Goro Lives, Akechi Goro Needs a Hug, Angst, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Persona 5 Protagonist Needs a Hug, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, Soulmates, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-16 06:13:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28701978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rollie_ravioli/pseuds/rollie_ravioli
Summary: Every one in a million people gets to experience the soul switch, a miraculous event where a person is transported into their future body and gets to briefly experience the joy of living with their soulmate.Akira gets to experience it after the worst day of his life.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 9
Kudos: 263





	1. Chapter 1

The car was completely silent as the three Kurusu’s drove home from the courthouse. Akira kept his eyes on his lap, not daring to look and see the disappointment etched on both of his parents’ faces.

Once they arrived back at their home, the two parents stepped out of the car and quickly made their way inside, while Akira walked at a snail’s pace, keeping his head down.

Once inside, Akira began to make his way to his room before he heard his father’s demanding voice, “Akira, Come Here.”

Akira made his way to the living room, where both his parents were sitting on the couch, beckoning him to sit across from them.

The room was completely still, Akira staring at his hands in his lap, Akira’s father staring at him, and his mother turning her head back and forth between the two of them. Soon enough, she decided to speak up, “Akira dear, we need to tell you something.”

Akira let out a “hmm” as a response, still not looking up.

“For the next year, you’re going to be going to school in Tokyo.” She explained, no softness to her voice.

Finally, Akira looking up from his lap. “Tokyo!? Why?”

“Because that’s the only damn school that’d accept you, now that you had to go out and get yourself a criminal record.” His father said with a frown.

Akira looked back down to his lap. He wanted to complain that he would be leaving all his friends behind, but they had already ghosted him when he got arrested. “Oh.” He said instead.

The room was silent again. Akira still refused to meet his parents’ eyes, while they continued to stare at him.

Once again, his mother decided to break the silence, “Don’t you have something you’d like to say to us?” she asked, raising both her eyebrows at Akira.

Akira looked up, saw his parents’ impatient stares, and shrugged. His father looked like he had just spit in his drink.

“How about an apology for ruining our reputation all over town because you just had to go and get yourself arrested?!” He looked like he was about to stand up, but his wife kept him on the couch with a hand on his shoulder.

Akira’s eyes widened, and suddenly his vision started getting blurry. “But… I told you, I was trying to stop the guy from…”

“Oh, not this horseshit again!” His father interrupted again. “The police said, there was no woman around, and why would the cops lie, huh?”

A tear started to fall down Akira cheek. “She was there, but the guy… he was powerful or something, he...”

His mother spoke up again. “Give it a rest, Akira. Real life isn’t like one of your anime shows. You need to take responsibility for what you’ve done and apologize. To us.”

“Was I just supposed to let her get hurt by that man?”

“Christ, Akira!” His father raised his voice, causing Akira to flinch. “Stop with this saviour bullshit! We know there was no woman. You just decided to attack some nice man, and now because of you, everyone’s been giving us weird looks all over town, and now we have to spend our money to send your ungrateful ass to Tokyo!”

The room went silent again, except for the sound of Akira trying to hide his sniffles as he aggressively wiped away the few tears that fell down his cheek. Without looking at his parents, he stood up, whispered “Sorry,” and ran up to his bedroom, closing the door behind him.

Once in his bed, he grabbed his pillow and started sobbing into it, letting out all his pent-up anger and pain from the past few weeks. _I try to do one good thing, and now what? I’m expelled, I have no friends, my parents hate me, and now I have to go to Tokyo._ He thought to himself.

Eventually, once his sobs had turned back into just quiet sniffles, he looked at the bruises on his wrists from being handcuffed by the police, and thought _maybe this is all my fault. Maybe I should just let people be, then this won’t happen again._

With that thought, his eyelids grew heavier and heavier, until he fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

Before Akira even opened his eyes, he realized how bright his room was.

 _That’s weird,_ he thought to himself. _I thought I left my blinds closed. I guess Mom must have opened them._

Akira moaned as he rolled over and hid his face into his pillow trying to block out the light. Slowly, he opened his eyes, trying to get them adjusted to the light streaming into his room.

Once he could finally see, the first thing he noticed was that his sheets were the wrong colour. Akira sat up quickly. As he rubbed his eyes, thinking maybe his eyesight was just a little wonky from having just woken up, but nope, they were still blue, even though they should be grey.

The next thing he noticed was that his bed was almost double the size of his. As Akira moved his eyes around the room, he saw a lot of things that made zero sense. The room was too big, the walls were the wrong colour, there were now two dressers, the door was on the right side instead of the left, and it looked like there was an en suite bathroom. Akira found that his heart rate was rising rapidly, when he looked down at his body and saw that it looked like he apparently had grown a couple inches overnight, and his hair had grown just a little bit more.

Then, it all just clicked into place for him.

This was the switch.

Akira had heard about the soul switch when he was younger. Supposedly, at some point, a person may fall asleep and wake up in their future self’s body, when they would be with their soulmate. It was supposedly extremely rare, to the point where some people that it was an elaborate hoax, but it was real, and it appears that Akira is currently living it.

Akira took a moment to calm his breathing. _So,_ he thought, _this is where I’ll be living in the future._ He looked around his future bedroom to try and get an idea about his future. On his bedside table he saw a framed photograph of his teenage self with a bunch of strangers who would probably be around his age in what looked like a café. Akira picked it up to get a closer look. He looked at his own face, smile wide, eyes closed, with a cat placing its front paws on top of his head. He doesn’t think he’s ever seen himself look so happy.

As he puts the picture back down, he hears someone yell “Shit!” from outside his room. Akira gets off the bed and heads towards the sound of the noise.

Akira arrives in the kitchen, where he lays his eyes on what may be the prettiest boy he has ever seen. He was about the same height as Akira, had shoulder length light brown hair tied back in a ponytail, slim with a bit of muscle, a sharp jawline, and a pair of reddish-brown eyes that were currently looking right at Akira, going wide quickly.

“Oh, Akira!” He said quickly. Akira saw that there was what looked like pancake batter smeared across his cheek and the apron he was wearing. “I was uh… just making some breakfast for us. And it’s going perfectly, obviously.” After Akira clearly had a very confused look on his face, the man came over, grabbed his wrist and pulled him over to a nearby couch. “Don’t worry, Akira,” he said with a suddenly sharp voice, “I’m not going to burn the house down. I’m not that stupid.”

Akira, who was transfixed watching what was apparently his soulmate try to get him to sit down, barely registered that he was talking to him. He let out a quiet “Okay,” to which the man responded with a confused look. Before he could question it though, he was distracted by the pan on the stove catching fire.

“Shit!” he yelled as he grabbed a fire extinguisher and sprayed it at the stove.

Once the fire was put out and stove turned off, he brought a plate of pancakes over to Akira, all of which looked somewhere between mildly to extremely burnt. The man sat down next to Akira and let out a long sigh. “I apologize for the nature of the pancakes. I’ve never had the affinity for cooking that you seem to have.”

Akira stopped staring at the man to look back at the stack of pancakes. “No, they look… good.” He tried to make his soulmate feel better, but when he looked back, the man had a look of disgust on his face.

“You know I hate it when you patronize me, Akira.” The man said with a furrowed brow.

Akira looked down at his lap. _Great, already disappointing my soulmate._ “Sorry.” He said in a quiet voice.

“You’re acting strange.” He stated matter-of-factly. “What’s going on with you today?”

“Nothing!” Akira said in a strangely high voice. His soulmate was quiet for moment before a hand touched Akira’s chin and pulled his face up so that he was looking into the eyes of his soulmate.

The man stared at with a look that was half threatening and half curious. Akira tried to keep his eyes looking anywhere other than the man currently looking at him like he was a jigsaw puzzle.

After what felt like hours to Akira, his soulmate’s eyes widened, and he moved his hand away from his chin. “Ah, you’re from the past, aren’t you?”

Akira was quiet for a moment before nodding. The man moved a little further away from him. “Ah yes, Akira did mention that this happened to him…” he said, looking off to the side in thought. “Um how… old would you be?”

“16.”

“Oh,” he replied, bringing his hand to his chin. “Have you… uh left your hometown yet?”

Akira looked down at his lap. “Not yet.” He let out through gritted teeth.

“Oh, I suppose you would not have met me yet then. Um, I’m Goro.” He said, lifting his hand to shake Akira’s before deciding against it, bringing it back down.

Akira glanced in Goro’s direction, who was looking at him nervously. “Nice to meet you.” Akira squeaked out.

Goro let out a quick laugh. “You seem to be a lot quieter back then.”

“…right.” Akira replied. Goro frowned at that.

“Hey,” he said, moving closer to Akira. “I know you don’t know me, but I know you. And I know that you are someone who hides away whatever’s bothering him for other people’s sake. And, I also know what you look like when you are doing this.” He said with an air of authority surrounding him. “So spill.”

Akira kept his eyes of his lap. “Yesterday I… I was given a criminal record for assault.” He finally let out, and soon enough, it was like a damn breaking. Tears started falling as he continued to explain to this stranger that he just met. “I was just trying to help this lady, *sniff* and this guy fell over, and the cops blamed me. *sniff* I was just trying to help her. And now my parents hate me, my friends ignored me, and now I have to move to Tokyo.” As he spoke he continued to wipe tears away from his eyes.

Goro sat there, a bit in shock from the boy’s sudden outburst, trying to figure out what to do. “Akira was always better at this…” he whispered under his breath before moving closer to his soulmate and nervously placing and arm around his shoulders, pulling him in close. Akira forgot to be uncomfortable about the contact with this stranger, letting his head fall against his chest as he kept letting his tears fall down his face. Goro started to rub up and down Akira’s back, occasionally playing with his hair as the boy let all his feelings out.

Once Akira started to calm down a little, he whispered out “Sometimes I wonder if I made the right decision.”

At that, Goro sat up right, grabbed hold of Akira’s shoulders and forced him to look him face to face. “Listen here, Akira.” He said with a stern voice. “That man was a piece of shit who deserved far worse than getting knocked on his ass by a teenager. Because of you, that women was able to avoid something that she was clearly not happy doing. And yes, your old ‘friends,’” he let go of Akira’s shoulders to make air quotes, “and parents may have abandoned you, but they never deserved you anyway, so fuck ‘em. You did the right thing, and if anyone tells you otherwise, then they will have to deal with me.”

Akira stared at his soulmate with awe in his eye. No one had ever taken a stand for him quite like that before. He raised a hand to wipe a tear away. “Thank you. I… needed to hear that.”

Goro got a proud smile on his face. “My pleasure.”

The two sat next to each other for a few moments, shoulder to shoulder, before Akira remembered something. “Uh, Goro… there was a picture on the bedside table. With a bunch of other people…”

Goro smirked at him. “Perceptive as always.”

“Are they… friends of mine?”

“Yes.”

“Are they ‘worthy’ of being my friends?” he asked with a shit-eating grin.

Goro let out a quick laugh. “Well, I have my opinions… but they treat you right.” Goro looked off to another picture on the wall, depicting him, Akira, and the rest of the group from earlier, at what appeared to be a wedding for a beautiful blonde woman and another athletic looking black-haired woman. Akira smiled when he saw how happy everyone looked. “You’ll be meeting them soon.” Goro said in a voice that was both happy and nervous at the same time.

Goro then turned to face Akira again. “Listen, you’ll be meeting me soon too, and… uh…” he looked off to the side as he tried to find the words he needed. “Just, I wasn’t as, um, emotionally well-adjusted then as I am now. I’ve… made a lot of mistakes in my life. You’ll probably be disappointed…”

Akira instinctively grabbed his soulmates hand and squeezed. “I’m not disappointed.”

Goro smirked at him. “You say that now…” he looked wistfully off to the side. “Just, be careful around me, and don’t let first, or even second impressions define everything.” Akira gave him a confused look. “You’ll understand eventually.”

Akira smirked. “Okay.” He kept his hand in Goro’s when suddenly he gave a large yawn and was overtaken by an overwhelming sense of fatigue. He yawned again as he leaned against Goro’s shoulder.

“I suppose this is where we say goodbye.” Goro said as he wrapped an arm around Akira. Akira nodded slowly. “We’ll meet again, soon.” He said quickly. As Akira’s eyelids grew more and more heavy, covering more and more of the world in blackness, he heard Goro say “Sleep well, Joker,” and Akira fell asleep with a wide smile on his face, ready to face whatever waited for him in Tokyo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! :)
> 
> I think I might do another chapter of Goro also having a dream, so stay tuned for that!


	2. Goro's dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Goro Akechi dreams of his future.

Goro watched Kurusu’s eyes widened as the bulkhead door rose up between them. He really did wish they could’ve met earlier. At one point, he had foolishly hoped that he and the teen could have some sort of future together. No one ever made him feel as alive as Akira did.

But alas, that dream could never be a reality. Akira was the leader of the Phantom Thieves, and Goro was too in deep with Shido’s conspiracy. And to top it all off, there is no way Akira would ever want to be with him knowing what he had done, who he truly is.

Goro heard a banging noise from the other side of the door once it was up. _Of course they wouldn’t be happy about this,_ Goro thought to himself. _They can’t handle the idea that they failed to save even someone was insignificant as me._

But Goro would not allow those idiots to waste their chance to leave, the chance that Goro had given them. “Hurry up and go!” he commanded.

He heard Kitagawa speak up first. “You fool! Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

 _I thought I was making that obvious._ “The real fools… are you guys. You should have just abandoned me here a long time ago…” Goro felt it get more difficult to breath. “You would have all perished… if you had tried to face these with me weighing you down…” Goro coughed violently. The phantom thieves had really done a number on him.

Goro looked around and saw the shadows on his side waiting for the cognitive version of himself to recover. He didn’t have much more time. “Let’s make a deal, okay? You won’t say no, will you?” Goro knew that the entire team was listening, but there was really only one person he wanted to speak to right now. “Change Shido’s heart… in my stead… End his crimes.” He couldn’t help the tears that began to well up in his eyes. “Please!”

Goro waited for one of them to answer before he heard a soft sniffle come from the other side, and Akira finally spoke up. “I’ll hold on to your glove.”

Goro let out a tiny gasp. He didn’t really think that the other boy had actually cared that much about his challenge, that he would actually want to see him for another duel even after finding out everything that Goro had done. “Heh… after all this, that’s what you have to say? Seriously, you really are…” Goro couldn’t finish his sentence. He heard what sounded like quiet crying from the other side, but he couldn’t focus on that now.

Both Goro and his cognitive double stood up at the same time, aiming their weapons at each other. Two shots rang out, and then all Goro saw was darkness.

The first thing Goro felt after death was warmth. Not like the kind you would expect from the fiery pits of hell that Christians describe. More like sitting under a warm blanket, or one of his mother’s hugs.

The second thing he noticed was that there seemed to be light intruding into the darkness of his eyelids. He tried to open them an inch, but the light sources blinded him, and he squeezed his eyes shut.

 _Huh, that’s weird._ Goro thought to himself. _If I’m dead, why can I move my eyelids?_

Goro tried to open his eyes again, but whatever was shining into his face was still intolerable, so he turned his head away. He could still feel the light in his eyes, so he kept them shut.

The next thing Goro noticed was the sound of someone’s breath and the feeling of another person’s skin touching his own, someone around his stomach. Goro lifted his hand ( _Oh, I guess I have movement in my arms, too_ ) and brought it down where he felt the contact, and he found someone’s arm casually sitting across his chest. Goro peaked an eye open to investigate the mysterious limb, but instead his vision was fully consumed by a black head of hair.

Goro slowly opened his eyes more to get a better picture of his surroundings. Once his eyes adjusted to the light, he saw that he was currently sitting in a queen size bed in an unrecognizable bedroom with some black-headed man clinging to his side. Goro turned to look out the window and saw the Tokyo skyline, so at least he knew which city he was in, even if he had no idea where in said city he is, or who this man was clinging to his arm.

Goro analyzed this strange person. From his position, he could only see the top of his head, no angle to see the face, which was currently pressed against Goro’s shoulder. Goro tried to slowly move away from the man to get a look at his face, but as he did so, the man began to stir. Goro tried to calm down his panic as he heard the sound of someone breathing in and out again. As the person began bringing his head up, Goro turned to look the other way. He didn’t really want this person to see him in such a state of panic.

Then, Goro heard the man speak in a suspiciously familiar voice. “Morning, honey.”

Goro whipped his head back to stare into the same eyes that he saw just moments before his death. He was looking into the eyes of Akira Kurusu.

Goro’s rival smiled at him. “Good sleep?” he asked, not seeming at all concerned that his attempted murderer was sitting in bed with him. When Goro didn’t answer quickly enough, Akira’s smile disappeared, replaced by a concerned look. “Did you have another nightmare?”

Goro pushed aside the millions of questions in his head as he answered, “Sorry, my sleep was fine.” Goro didn’t really want to explain to Akira that he had no idea how he went from bleeding out in the Shido’s palace to being in bed with the man he tried to assassinate.

Akira’s frown disappeared, and instead looked like he was about to ask a question before deciding against it. Instead, he adjusted himself so that he was now laying on his side with one arm propping his head up and the other beginning to move around in circles on his chest.

Now that Goro was beginning to control his momentary panic, he got to really take in the other man lying next to him. He was clearly Akira, but he seemed to be about 10 years older. Goro let his eyes drift past his face and onto his chest, which seemed a bit more built up that when he had seen it at the bathhouse, yet he still maintained his slim figure. His eyes drifted lower and lower, taking in every inch of his body, until he got low enough that he could see under the covers and… Goro quickly looked to the roof. It appeared that the both of them were completely naked. Goro could feel his face heating up instantly.

“Like what you see?” Akira asked with a laugh. He leaned in and gave Goro a kiss on the cheek. “So…” he continued, “Since both of us are off work today, I thought we could go and spend the day at Inokashira Park. Have a picnic, bike around a little…” Goro looked back at the man’s face as he continued talking. “Or, we could stay here and have a little fun of our own…” he said as his hand drifted lower and lower, leaving Goro’s chest and getting suspiciously close to his member.

“Inokashira Park sound good!” Goro yelled out in a weirdly high voice. Akira brough his hand up from the beneath the sheets with a smirk on his face. 

“Okay, I’ll go make us some breakfast and then we can go.” Akira slipped out of the covers, but once he was on his feet he stumbled a little, grabbing onto the nearby dresser. Goro turned to look at him, but raised his eyes to focus on his head when he got a full view of the former Phantom Thief’s ass. “Sorry, just still feel a little sore from last night.” He said with a smirk as he grabbed a pair of pyjama pants from the floor. Meanwhile, Goro turned away as his face turned the colour of a strawberry.

Once he heard the door open and steps moving away from the room, he buried his head into a pillow and let out a quiet scream. _What the fuck is going on?_ he yelled at himself in his mind. _Why am I here? Why is Akira here, and older? Why am I not dead? Did I have sex with Akira last night?_

Once Goro calmed down a bit, he lifted his head from the pillow, got up and looked around the room. He quickly found clothes that looked like they belonged to him and put them on. Once he was dressed, he started to explore this apartment he had ended up in.

Within the bedroom, there was just one picture on the bedside table of the Phantom Thieves in Leblanc. He also noticed himself there, although he had no memory of this picture being taken. In the picture, all the thieves looked closer to the age that he remembered them.

Goro was brought out of his analysis by the sound of a phone vibrating. He searched for the source of the noise and found a cell phone. It appears that this Akira forgot his phone here. Goro looked at the lock screen and saw a picture of what looked like an older version of himself drinking a coffee, not noticing the photographer. Goro then noticed the date on the phone, December 10th, 2026.

The phone hit the ground as Goro raced to find the first mirror he could find, in the en suite bathroom. He looked at the man in the mirror with a horrified look on his face. He looked exactly like the picture he saw.

Goro stared at himself in the mirror for almost 5 minutes. He had recalled someone saying something about some soulmate bullshit when he was younger, but he never had someone around to explain the concept to him. But he knew that whatever was going on right now, was this ‘soul switch.’

Goro slowly exited the bathroom as even more questions rushed into his head, mainly: _why was he having this dream when he just died? And why is Kurusu apparently my soulmate?_

Goro’s thoughts were interrupted by the man in question yelling out “food’s ready!”

Goro made his way out of the bedroom to find Akira putting two plates of food down on a table. Akira smiled when he saw him and pulled a chair out. Goro hesitantly sat down while still looking around the apartment.

It was a decent size, with a full kitchen, living room, and a dining area. Compared to the Goro’s current ( _past_?) apartment, this one looked like people actually lived here. There was actual food in the kitchen, not just microwave meals for 1, and the walls and shelves were covered in pictures.

As Akira dug into his food, Goro scanned some of the pictures on a nearby shelf. He saw a lot of them with the rest of the Phantom Thieves at various stages of growth, and remarkably they seemed to be tolerating his presence in the pictures. But Goro’s eyes locked on one specific picture. He decided to get up to get a closer look, earning a puzzled look from Akira.

The picture showed the two of them, at what looked like a summer festival, with fireworks going off in the background. They were both wearing Yukatas, and Akira had one arm outstretched taking the picture. His head was turned sideways, giving Goro a large kiss on the cheek, while he had his other hand holding the back of Goro’s head. Past Goro’s eyes were closed, and he was smiling. Not his fake Detective Prince TV smile, this one was much wider, looking like he was in the middle of a laughing fit. Goro didn’t think it was possible for him to smile like that anymore.

He was still staring at it when a hand grasped his own. “Goro,” Akira spoke up in a soft voice, “What’s wrong?”

Goro hadn’t realized it, but there were tears building up in his eyes. He still didn’t look away from the picture. He doesn’t think he’s been that happy in… since before his mom died. Goro let out a quiet sob.

Akira quickly stood up and wrapped an arm around Goro’s shoulders as he let out another sob. “Goro, is everything okay?” Goro didn’t look at him as he shook his head.

Before Goro could speak up, Akira began guiding him somewhere, until he felt himself being pushed down onto a couch. The picture still hadn’t left his hand.

“What’s wrong honey?” he asked as he began to move his hand in circles on Goro’s back.

Goro opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Tears began to fall from his face onto the picture.

“Are you sure you didn’t have another nightmare?” he asked in a soft voice. Goro shook his head again. He wanted to shove Akira’s hand off his back, but he couldn’t muster up the energy.

After Akira was silent for a few moments, Goro looked at him and saw wide concerned eyes. “Is this real?” Goro asked, finally finding his voice again. He hated how pitiful his voice sounded, but he didn’t have the energy to fake being calm and happy.

“Of course it is. Why wouldn’t it be?” Akira replied with the same calm, soft tone.

Goro aggressively wiped away a tear. “Because I’m supposed to be dead!” he yelled as he accidently broke the glass of picture frame.

Akira went wide eyed at first, before he saw Goro’s hand and grabbed the broken glass, placing it on the table. “What… what do you mean?” his voice was growing more concerned.

“Shido’s cognition… it shot me! I must have died!” He stood up suddenly, quickly looking around the room, as if there might be a ghost watching somewhere. “This is probably just one last taunt from the gods, showing me… showing me this, right before I die!”

Akira’s eyes widened as he listened to Goro. He quickly stood up and placed a hand on Goro’s shoulder. “Goro, this… this is real. You’re having your soul switch right now. This is your future.”

Goro wiped his head around to glare at his rival. “Don’t lie to me! How can this be my future if I’m dead?!”

“You’re not dead, Goro!”

Goro let out a high-pitched laugh. “Right. I guess I just survived getting shot, all those shadows, and managed to crawl out of Shido’s palace.”

Akira continued to stare at him with an unreadable look. “Goro, I don’t know how you survived, but you did. You woke up in a hospital, and then you came to find me.”

“Bullshit!” Goro yelled out, tears still streaming down his face. “A child could come up with a better story.”

“I know it seems unrealistic, but it’s what happened, okay?” Akira said, trying to keep his voice calm.

Goro stared at him with a look that was partly confused, partly disgusted. He continued to aggressively wipe away tears.

After about a minute of their staring contest, Goro spoke up again, this time much quieter. “If… if this is real, how can you… how can you be my soulmate? How can you tolerate me after all I’ve done to you?”

Akira took a deep breath. “How much time you got?” he said with a laugh. Goro sneered at him. “I know you’ve done bad things Goro, and I also know that you were being groomed for murder by that asshole father of yours since you were 14. And I know that you deeply regret what you did and have done what you can to fix your mistakes.” Before Goro could say he’s wrong, Akira spoke up again, “Or you will, once you go back to your time.”

“But… why am I your soulmate?” Goro asked quietly, not able to meet Akira’s eyes anymore.

Akira took another deep breath. “Because… no one I’ve ever met makes me feel the way you do. No one challenges me, or makes me feel as confident, or makes me want to be better as much as you do, even before I found out about your past.” After a beat passes, he adds on, “and it helps that you’re really hot, too.” Goro glared at him in response.

After another minute, Goro sighed at sat back down on the couch. Akira did the same, quietly waiting to see if Goro spoke up. Instead, he reached to the broken frame on the table and pulled out the photo, studying it once again. “When does this happen?” he quietly asks his supposed soulmate.

“That’s the same summer you came and found me in Inaba.” Akira smiles as he thinks back on the memory. “You didn’t want to date me then, you still felt like you weren’t good enough. Yet, you still stayed around, for some unknown reason.” Akira smirked at Goro. “Then, the festival came up and we decided to go together. That picture was taken in the middle of my attempt to seduce you.”

“Did it work?” Goro asked as he once again looked at his blissful face.

Akira gave Goro a playful push. “What do you think? I thought you were supposed to be a detective or something?” Goro gave him a small smile.

“I don’t think… I’ve ever seen myself look this happy. I’m not sure it’s possible anymore.” Goro spoke with a quiet voice.

“Well, you better start believing it, honey, because I’ve made it my mission to see that smile on your face as much as possible.” Akira said as he put an arm around Goro’s shoulders again. Goro gave another small smile.

“Were you always this corny?” Goro smirked at Akira.

“Yeah, you just never noticed because you were too busy either thinking about fighting me or kissing me. Or both.” Akira giggled at his comment, and Goro gave him a few small laughs.

All of a sudden, a wave of fatigue hit Goro like a ton of bricks. He struggled to keep his eyes open as he started swaying back and forth. Akira pulled him close so that he leaned against his shoulder.

“Are sure this is real?” Goro quietly asked, as blackness began to overtake his vision.

“Yes, I’m sure this is real.” Akira said quietly. “and even if it isn’t, know that I love you, and I’ve always loved you, even back then.”

Goro smiled as he muttered out, “Such a fool, Kurusu.” Akira held him tight as Goro drifted off to sleep, ready for whatever faced him on the other side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! :)


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